August 2, 2011

Shibazuke/しば漬け

On the night of July 28, I started making shibazuke by following this recipe (Japanese only). Luckily, I found this recipe later, which is a translation of the first one, saving me from the tedious work of translation!
７月28日の夜、このレシピでしば漬けを作り始めました。運良く、後で、このレシピを見つけ、翻訳という退屈な作業をしないで済みました！

The reason for the dark color of the myoga is that they had been frozen. The myoga had been frozen for a whole year!
茗荷の色が濃いのは、冷凍してあったからです。丸一年、冷凍していた茗荷です！
I used two 2-liter PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles as weights.
重石として２リットルのペットボトルを２つ使いました。

On the morning of July 29, I got this much water coming out of the vegetables.
７月29日の朝、これだけの水が野菜から出ていました。

I searched for aka jiso in and around my yard, and found only this amount.
家の庭の周りで赤ジソを探したのですが、これだけしか見つかりませんでした。

I had to buy some more aka jiso! I had one very serious problem: My house was flooded below floor level!
Photo taken on the morning of July 30：
赤ジソをもう少し買わないと。でも大きな問題が一つ： 家が床下浸水しました！
７月30日の朝に撮った写真：

Anyway, I bought this big bag of aka jiso around noon.
ともかく、昼頃、大きな袋に入った赤ジソを買いました。

Shibazuke as of the morning of August 1:
８月１日の朝の時点でのしば漬け：

Not bad, but a little too salty for my taste.
悪くはないですが、私にはちょっと塩辛すぎました。

Hiroyuki, I hope the water level has lowered now and that you are ok! I have never experienced such a situation, so it looks very scary to me.Shibazuke looks delicious and I might try it without myoga which is impossible to buy here.I really hope this water level was just temporary...

The flood was temporary where we live, from around four to eight in the morning, but I've never experienced such a heavy rainfall in my entire life! I still have some work to do, but I'd say that the damage to my house was minimal. There are many other people in Niigata and Fukushima prefectures who still suffer from the the aftermath of the heavy rainfall.

The essential vegetable of shibazuke is eggplant, while other vegetables are optional. Note also that this recipe, which calls for mirin and vinegar, is for instant shibazuke. Authentic shibazuke is made by lactic acid fermentation, and takes nearly a whole year, according to Wikipedia.

In Japan, shibazuke is closely associated with this woman, Yamaguchi Mie.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgh4o4LWpYgShe became very popular in late 1980s (1987?) after this TV commercial.Acting as a career woman, she sighs in an elevator, and then says, "Ah, shibazuke tabetai." (Ah, I want to have shibazuke.)

Hiroyuki, I am glad the water level was temporary and that your house isn't damaged. I am wondering why there is folk Russian-style music in this advertisement... I must try the instant shibazuke then! I will think about the "authentic" when the pickling and jam making season will end and I start missing long-term preserves...

Sissi: I have a recipe for authentic shibazukehttp://www002.upp.so-net.ne.jp/patako/tabemono/natsu/shibazuke.html(Japanese only)It says you can start eating it in one month.

I didn't even realize that the music was Russian...

I thought about making aka jiso drink with the remaining aka jiso, by following this recipehttp://higekuma.blog.ocn.ne.jp/blog/2010/06/post_0c25.html(Japanese only, again)But I gave up the idea. Instead, I rubbed them with salt, squeezed, and put them in the freezer for later use.

Hello,I have a large amount of red shiso growing in my yard and I would like to make some shibazuke. I read through the recipe and I was not sure if you are supposed to discard the liquid that comes out of the vegetables after they have been salted and pressed? Or does it all get mixed in with the shiso and and the shiso liquid? Thank you!

Thank you for the quick response Hiroyuki! I am in Spokane, Washington in the US. It's been in the mid-70's, not extremely warm, but the shiso is growing well. My mother planted it many years ago and it comes up every year. I don't think I will be able to find myoga here, but I'm looking forward to trying the recipe.-Glenna